Faze Supergirl/Breathless Reads Event

A lovely sign at our table

Emilie and I FREEZING!

Well, yesterday I wrote about our Ottawa Blogger Mix and Mingle and today I am here to write about another event I was fortunate enough to attend.  A few weeks ago Emilie from Emilie's Book World tweeted me to say that Breathless Reads was coming to Toronto and that it was on a Sunday.  It just so happened that it was also the weekend of Family Day and thus a long weekend for me.  After calling my dad and successfully procuring a free hotel room for one night I tweeted back to say that I was in.  We have been to a few events together and I was looking forward to spending some more time with Emilie.  We got up at the ass crack of dawn on Saturday morning and left Ottawa at 8am.  After a Starbucks run, and several Taylor Swift songs we arrived at the Sheraton in downtown Toronto.  We spent our day shopping at the Eaton Center and swiming in the snow.  Yes, you heard me correctly, we swam outside while it was snowing.  The Sheraton has the most amazing pool; it is heated and half of it is indoors while half of it is outdoors.  You just swim under a small opening and then you are outside.  Anyhow I digress.

Notice inside- ppl frantically trying to get shit done before the event

After watching several movies, we woke up, enjoyed a free breakfast and got ready to go to the event that we came to the city for.  We made our way to the Toronto Opera House on Queen St. and when we arrived at 1:15 we were surprised to see a line up already starting outside.  I think that perhaps I should mention that it was -27 degrees outside.  I seriously failed when I packed my mittens in my bag and left them in my car.  The event was supposed to start at 2pm and as it got closer to 2pm the line up grew longer and longer.  All the while, we could see people frantically trying to get things finished inside the building.  At one table several people were cutting decals and pasting them on cookies and there were several others milling around watching.  I'm not going to lie after waiting in the cold (did I mention it was -27 out?!?) for 45 minutes it was a little infuriating watching people prepare for an event that was supposed to start in a few minutes.  At 2pm, we all thought that we must be going inside now.  Well, no... we were greeting through a window by the same people scrambling around to get things done with a message that we had to wait another 5 minutes.  Well, those 5 minutes stretched to 15 and at 2:15 (an hour after we arrived) we were being let into the building.

Michele and I- the old timers escaped from the old age home :)

We were let in slowly but surely and once we got in I could see that this event was definitely not meant for someone in my age demographic.  Now to the event planners' credit I am 30 and the event was listed for girls 13-24 so it really wasn't supposed to be aimed at me.  That being said, I feel like book bloggers were encouraged to come and it was sold to us as a Breathless Reads event.  The day seemed to be centered mostly on the musical acts that were there.  They had Brendn, Jesse Giddings and Eleven Past One all performing.  Now, I only stayed for Brendn but he seemed to be a hit with all the young girls.  As for me, let's just say it's not necessarily my style of music.  It got very awkward when he called a young girl on stage to serenade her and then seemed to forget all about her while he sang a cover song of Neyo.  After that he proceeded to ask her to put lip gloss on him and then he kissed her cheek.  It was all very strange but again, I think I am aging myself a bit.

All the bloggers

The birthday girl- Morgan Rhodes

Throughout the whole thing I may have been asking my what the fuck is going on.  It was a very strange event for me and I thought that it wasn't geared towards the authors at all.  I think that if I was a 13 year old girl I would have loved it.  I don't think I would have enjoyed it if I was over the age of 18 though and 18 may be pushing it.  In planning the next event I think that they should rethink the age range.  The one thing that made this event so much fun though was meeting up with all the Toronto bloggers that I have been chatting with over Twitter for quite some time.  The entire time we may have been making hilarious tweets and making sarcastic comments.  It was fun to joke around as we waited for the authors to come down from the VIP section upstairs.

Adrienne Kress

Jessica Spotswood and I

After Brendn (need I point out that he seems to be missing a vowel in his name), they announced that the authors would be signing books soon.  We were happy to discover that we were all standing very close to the table where the authors would be signing their books.  I was excited to meet Morgan Rhodes (Falling Kingdoms), Jessica Spotswood (Born Wicked), Beth Revis (Across the Universe) and Adrienne Kress (The Friday Society).  Originally Andrea Cremer was scheduled to be there but at the last minute she was unable to and so Adrienne filled in for her.  I am such an awkward kid at these events because I never know what to say to the authors.  I want to tell them what I loved and what drove me crazy about their books but I never end up saying half the things I want to because I'm just so star struck.  I smile and thank them for writing such amazing stories and that's about it.  I always think of something clever to say afterwards though which is a little too late.  This time I was awestruck especially when Beth Revis told me she loved my necklace.  All the authors just seemed so nice.  I want to thank Penguin Canada for bringing these great authors to Toronto!  While the Faze event was a tad bit disorganized, I do not blame Penguin for this one bit.  After meeting such talented authors, a few of us decided that we had seen what we came to see and we then booked it to the nearest pub for a well deserved beer.

Beth Revis and I

It was so nice to hang out with Michele (Just a Lil Lost), Andrea (Cozy up with a Good Read), Wendy (Cupcake and a Latte) and Emilie (Emilie's Book World) in a quieter more age friendly environment.  We enjoyed a lovely dinner and chatted about the event and other such things.  After that it was time to head back to Ottawa.  I can't wait for the next Toronto event to hang out with these lovely ladies again.  Thanks for a great time despite such random occurances!